Russian Circles decided to make a stop at Spaceland here in LA. Although I will travel pretty far to see Russian Circles, they picked a venue within walking distance of my house. Nice choice.

Had a few buddies there, was a decent show, some slip ups here and there, on the whole one of the more sloppy times I have seen them but the crowd was very into it... I've actually never seen a crowd be this supportive of Russian Circles before, and I was very happy to see it.

They even played an encore which I was surprised about... Seen them 5 times now, and that was the first time I've seen that happen.

Setlist:

Station
Malko
Harper Lewis
Hexed All
Youngblood
Philos
Death Rides A Horse
Geneva

Encore was Carpe.

Opener was Keelhaul who I knew nothing about. The music was decent but they were probably the crankiest demanding band I've ever seen before. Literally the first 20 minutes of their set was sound checks and tweaks followed by the drummer breaking something. You could tell the crowd was dying for them to fucking get on with the set.

This is a great set - basically the same as they played on their last touring cycle, with the addiiton of Station, which was played regularly on the tour before that. The standout, though, is Hexed All. Knowing how hard Circles tries to reproduce their album sound exactly when they play live, this is an odd choice, since the original relies so heavily on strings (violin and cello, I believe). I wonder how they pulled that off...

The appearance of an encore is also unusual. They usually plan their sets ahead of time, and quite frankly they tend to play almost the exact same set every night. They don't generally do encores, and they rarely - if ever - interact with the crowd or even say a single word into the microphones (even though they've had them set up for every show I've seen). One would think they're almost anti-social (probably super-shy and / or humble, is probably more like it).

Quote:

Originally Posted by petrovar

That sucks you had a bad Keelhaul experience. They are normally one of the better bands to see here in Cleveland

This. Keelhaul are somewhat of perfectionists, though - so I could see how this might have happened. It's odd, considering how loud and chaotic their music sounds, but if you listen to their albums you can hear that they're actually very precise players.

Amazing show as usual. I was headbanging and going crazy like I usually do and there were actually a few joining me this time. I slightly impaired guy was also trying to get me to start a pit lol, definitely a first for me at a RC show. First time I've seen them do an encore and Carpe was a great choice.